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authorJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2019-11-25 08:43:28 -0700
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2019-11-25 08:43:28 -0700
commit22abcd7569618271cc3609da24bbc0e7541248a4 (patch)
tree00b1b89c35f721fb3e7bb2578a54cf90c9755603
parent51e46c7a4007d271b2d42dbc2df953ab968577a7 (diff)
parent0bfa52a43ec085c2f5eb2c35fcc6cf73bb802eae (diff)
downloadlwn-22abcd7569618271cc3609da24bbc0e7541248a4.tar.gz
lwn-22abcd7569618271cc3609da24bbc0e7541248a4.zip
Merge branch 'maintainer-profile' into docs-nextdocs-5.5
Patch series from Dan Williams: At last years Plumbers Conference I proposed the Maintainer Entry Profile as a document that a maintainer can provide to set contributor expectations and provide fodder for a discussion between maintainers about the merits of different maintainer policies. For those that did not attend, the goal of the Maintainer Entry Profile is to provide contributors documentation of patch submission considerations that may vary by subsystem. The session introduction was: The first rule of kernel maintenance is that there are no hard and fast rules. That state of affairs is both a blessing and a curse. It has served the community well to be adaptable to the different people and different problem spaces that inhabit the kernel community. However, that variability also leads to inconsistent experiences for contributors, little to no guidance for new contributors, and unnecessary stress on current maintainers. To be clear, the proposed document does not impose or suggest new rules. Instead it provides an outlet to document the existing unwritten policies in effect for a given subsystem. Over time the hope is that some of this variability can be up-levelled to new global process policy, but in the meantime it provides relief for communicating the guidelines that are being imposed on contributors. [jc: resolved merge conflicts with the MAINTAINERS file, added a patch to fix up various RST issues, and added a TOC section for the profiles.]
-rw-r--r--Documentation/maintainer/index.rst1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst102
-rw-r--r--Documentation/nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile.rst59
-rw-r--r--MAINTAINERS19
4 files changed, 173 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/maintainer/index.rst b/Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
index 56e2c09dfa39..d904e74e1159 100644
--- a/Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
@@ -12,4 +12,5 @@ additions to this manual.
configure-git
rebasing-and-merging
pull-requests
+ maintainer-entry-profile
diff --git a/Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst b/Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3eaddc8ac56d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+.. _maintainerentryprofile:
+
+Maintainer Entry Profile
+========================
+
+The Maintainer Entry Profile supplements the top-level process documents
+(submitting-patches, submitting drivers...) with
+subsystem/device-driver-local customs as well as details about the patch
+submission life-cycle. A contributor uses this document to level set
+their expectations and avoid common mistakes, maintainers may use these
+profiles to look across subsystems for opportunities to converge on
+common practices.
+
+
+Overview
+--------
+Provide an introduction to how the subsystem operates. While MAINTAINERS
+tells the contributor where to send patches for which files, it does not
+convey other subsystem-local infrastructure and mechanisms that aid
+development.
+
+Example questions to consider:
+
+- Are there notifications when patches are applied to the local tree, or
+ merged upstream?
+- Does the subsystem have a patchwork instance? Are patchwork state
+ changes notified?
+- Any bots or CI infrastructure that watches the list, or automated
+ testing feedback that the subsystem gates acceptance?
+- Git branches that are pulled into -next?
+- What branch should contributors submit against?
+- Links to any other Maintainer Entry Profiles? For example a
+ device-driver may point to an entry for its parent subsystem. This makes
+ the contributor aware of obligations a maintainer may have have for
+ other maintainers in the submission chain.
+
+
+Submit Checklist Addendum
+-------------------------
+List mandatory and advisory criteria, beyond the common "submit-checklist",
+for a patch to be considered healthy enough for maintainer attention.
+For example: "pass checkpatch.pl with no errors, or warning. Pass the
+unit test detailed at $URI".
+
+The Submit Checklist Addendum can also include details about the status
+of related hardware specifications. For example, does the subsystem
+require published specifications at a certain revision before patches
+will be considered.
+
+
+Key Cycle Dates
+---------------
+One of the common misunderstandings of submitters is that patches can be
+sent at any time before the merge window closes and can still be
+considered for the next -rc1. The reality is that most patches need to
+be settled in soaking in linux-next in advance of the merge window
+opening. Clarify for the submitter the key dates (in terms rc release
+week) that patches might considered for merging and when patches need to
+wait for the next -rc. At a minimum:
+
+- Last -rc for new feature submissions:
+ New feature submissions targeting the next merge window should have
+ their first posting for consideration before this point. Patches that
+ are submitted after this point should be clear that they are targeting
+ the NEXT+1 merge window, or should come with sufficient justification
+ why they should be considered on an expedited schedule. A general
+ guideline is to set expectation with contributors that new feature
+ submissions should appear before -rc5.
+
+- Last -rc to merge features: Deadline for merge decisions
+ Indicate to contributors the point at which an as yet un-applied patch
+ set will need to wait for the NEXT+1 merge window. Of course there is no
+ obligation to ever except any given patchset, but if the review has not
+ concluded by this point the expectation the contributor should wait and
+ resubmit for the following merge window.
+
+Optional:
+
+- First -rc at which the development baseline branch, listed in the
+ overview section, should be considered ready for new submissions.
+
+
+Review Cadence
+--------------
+One of the largest sources of contributor angst is how soon to ping
+after a patchset has been posted without receiving any feedback. In
+addition to specifying how long to wait before a resubmission this
+section can also indicate a preferred style of update like, resend the
+full series, or privately send a reminder email. This section might also
+list how review works for this code area and methods to get feedback
+that are not directly from the maintainer.
+
+Existing profiles
+-----------------
+
+For now, existing maintainer profiles are listed here; we will likely want
+to do something different in the near future.
+
+.. toctree::
+ :maxdepth: 1
+
+ ../nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile
diff --git a/Documentation/nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile.rst b/Documentation/nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..77081fd9be95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+LIBNVDIMM Maintainer Entry Profile
+==================================
+
+Overview
+--------
+The libnvdimm subsystem manages persistent memory across multiple
+architectures. The mailing list, is tracked by patchwork here:
+https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-nvdimm/list/
+...and that instance is configured to give feedback to submitters on
+patch acceptance and upstream merge. Patches are merged to either the
+'libnvdimm-fixes', or 'libnvdimm-for-next' branch. Those branches are
+available here:
+https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/nvdimm/nvdimm.git/
+
+In general patches can be submitted against the latest -rc, however if
+the incoming code change is dependent on other pending changes then the
+patch should be based on the libnvdimm-for-next branch. However, since
+persistent memory sits at the intersection of storage and memory there
+are cases where patches are more suitable to be merged through a
+Filesystem or the Memory Management tree. When in doubt copy the nvdimm
+list and the maintainers will help route.
+
+Submissions will be exposed to the kbuild robot for compile regression
+testing. It helps to get a success notification from that infrastructure
+before submitting, but it is not required.
+
+
+Submit Checklist Addendum
+-------------------------
+There are unit tests for the subsystem via the ndctl utility:
+https://github.com/pmem/ndctl
+Those tests need to be passed before the patches go upstream, but not
+necessarily before initial posting. Contact the list if you need help
+getting the test environment set up.
+
+### ACPI Device Specific Methods (_DSM)
+Before patches enabling for a new _DSM family will be considered it must
+be assigned a format-interface-code from the NVDIMM Sub-team of the ACPI
+Specification Working Group. In general, the stance of the subsystem is
+to push back on the proliferation of NVDIMM command sets, do strongly
+consider implementing support for an existing command set. See
+drivers/acpi/nfit/nfit.h for the set of support command sets.
+
+
+Key Cycle Dates
+---------------
+New submissions can be sent at any time, but if they intend to hit the
+next merge window they should be sent before -rc4, and ideally
+stabilized in the libnvdimm-for-next branch by -rc6. Of course if a
+patch set requires more than 2 weeks of review -rc4 is already too late
+and some patches may require multiple development cycles to review.
+
+
+Review Cadence
+--------------
+In general, please wait up to one week before pinging for feedback. A
+private mail reminder is preferred. Alternatively ask for other
+developers that have Reviewed-by tags for libnvdimm changes to take a
+look and offer their opinion.
diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index 2904dacba8fe..0093d236a63f 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -102,6 +102,10 @@ Descriptions of section entries
Obsolete: Old code. Something tagged obsolete generally means
it has been replaced by a better system and you
should be using that.
+ P: Subsystem Profile document for more details submitting
+ patches to the given subsystem. This is either an in-tree file,
+ or a URI. See Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
+ for details.
F: *Files* and directories wildcard patterns.
A trailing slash includes all files and subdirectory files.
F: drivers/net/ all files in and below drivers/net
@@ -819,7 +823,7 @@ S: Orphan
F: drivers/usb/gadget/udc/amd5536udc.*
AMD GEODE PROCESSOR/CHIPSET SUPPORT
-P: Andres Salomon <dilinger@queued.net>
+M: Andres Salomon <dilinger@queued.net>
L: linux-geode@lists.infradead.org (moderated for non-subscribers)
W: http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/TechnicalResources/0,,50_2334_2452_11363,00.html
S: Supported
@@ -9301,6 +9305,7 @@ M: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
M: Vishal Verma <vishal.l.verma@intel.com>
M: Dave Jiang <dave.jiang@intel.com>
L: linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org
+P: Documentation/nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
Q: https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-nvdimm/list/
S: Supported
F: drivers/nvdimm/blk.c
@@ -9311,6 +9316,7 @@ M: Vishal Verma <vishal.l.verma@intel.com>
M: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
M: Dave Jiang <dave.jiang@intel.com>
L: linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org
+P: Documentation/nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
Q: https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-nvdimm/list/
S: Supported
F: drivers/nvdimm/btt*
@@ -9320,6 +9326,7 @@ M: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
M: Vishal Verma <vishal.l.verma@intel.com>
M: Dave Jiang <dave.jiang@intel.com>
L: linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org
+P: Documentation/nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
Q: https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-nvdimm/list/
S: Supported
F: drivers/nvdimm/pmem*
@@ -9339,6 +9346,7 @@ M: Dave Jiang <dave.jiang@intel.com>
M: Keith Busch <keith.busch@intel.com>
M: Ira Weiny <ira.weiny@intel.com>
L: linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org
+P: Documentation/nvdimm/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
Q: https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-nvdimm/list/
T: git git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/nvdimm/nvdimm.git
S: Supported
@@ -10204,7 +10212,6 @@ F: drivers/staging/media/tegra-vde/
MEDIA INPUT INFRASTRUCTURE (V4L/DVB)
M: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@kernel.org>
-P: LinuxTV.org Project
L: linux-media@vger.kernel.org
W: https://linuxtv.org
Q: http://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-media/list/
@@ -13609,7 +13616,6 @@ S: Maintained
F: arch/mips/ralink
RALINK RT2X00 WIRELESS LAN DRIVER
-P: rt2x00 project
M: Stanislaw Gruszka <sgruszka@redhat.com>
M: Helmut Schaa <helmut.schaa@googlemail.com>
L: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
@@ -13945,7 +13951,6 @@ S: Supported
F: drivers/net/ethernet/rocker/
ROCKETPORT DRIVER
-P: Comtrol Corp.
W: http://www.comtrol.com
S: Maintained
F: Documentation/driver-api/serial/rocket.rst
@@ -14836,15 +14841,13 @@ F: drivers/video/fbdev/simplefb.c
F: include/linux/platform_data/simplefb.h
SIMTEC EB110ATX (Chalice CATS)
-P: Ben Dooks
-P: Vincent Sanders <vince@simtec.co.uk>
+M: Vincent Sanders <vince@simtec.co.uk>
M: Simtec Linux Team <linux@simtec.co.uk>
W: http://www.simtec.co.uk/products/EB110ATX/
S: Supported
SIMTEC EB2410ITX (BAST)
-P: Ben Dooks
-P: Vincent Sanders <vince@simtec.co.uk>
+M: Vincent Sanders <vince@simtec.co.uk>
M: Simtec Linux Team <linux@simtec.co.uk>
W: http://www.simtec.co.uk/products/EB2410ITX/
S: Supported